Large amounts of hydrogen are to be imported in the future for the energy transition. A pilot project in East Friesland is now testing how the gas can be stored in underground caverns. Cavern operators see great potential - residents fear damage.

Friedeburg (dpa / lni) - Green hydrogen is considered an important component of the energy transition - but how can the gas be stored temporarily on a large scale in the future? In a pilot project, a consortium led by the cavern operator Storag now wants to test the storage of hydrogen in existing caverns of a salt dome in Etzel, East Frisia. "We want to rededicate the cavern infrastructure holistically in order to support the necessary needs of the hydrogen economy," said Storag Managing Director Boris Richter when presenting the project on Thursday near Friedeburg in the Wittmund district. According to the initiators, this is the first project of this kind to store hydrogen in Lower Saxony. The state supports the "H2Cast Etzel" project with a grant of eight million euros. Environment Minister Olaf Lies (SPD) handed over a corresponding decision on Thursday. The consortium around the cavern operators Storag Etzel GmbH, EKB Storage and other industrial companies want to invest a mid double-digit million amount themselves. The aim is to further develop the cavern facility with the pilot project, said Richter. The project is scientifically supported by the TU Clausthal, for example. The salt dome below Etzel, twelve kilometers wide and five kilometers high, is home to one of the largest cavern fields in northwestern Europe. The operator Storag builds, maintains and leases the underground storage facilities for companies in the energy sector. The artificially built cavities have a diameter of around 60 meters and are up to 500 meters high. Around 4.3 billion cubic meters of gas are currently stored in 51 caverns and around 10 million cubic meters of crude oil in another 24, including a large part of the German crude oil reserve. In addition to the 75 caverns, further storage cavities can be created in the salt dome. There is space for a total of 99 caverns. In the research project, the consortium wants to test the conversion of existing caverns and plants in Etzel for the future storage of hydrogen. Two existing test caverns will be coupled with each other so that hydrogen can be shifted between the storage facilities. Almost 100 tons of hydrogen, generated from renewable energies, are to be filled into the storage facilities for test operation from 2024. Since there is currently no pipeline network for hydrogen in the region, it is to be delivered with special tankers. In addition, a so-called surface facility will be built for injection and withdrawal with different pressure cycles - expected to start in mid-2023. Minister Lies emphasized that Lower Saxony had decided that from 2040 onwards all of its energy requirements would come from renewable energies. "We have everything here in the region that works together so that the region and Lower Saxony will play a central role in the energy supply of the future," said Lies, referring to Etzel and the deep-water port in Wilhelmshaven. In the future, large quantities of renewable energies from wind power from the North Sea are to be landed there and import terminals for hydrogen are to be built. Storag Managing Director Richter was convinced that the importance of the caverns in Etzel would continue to increase. He referred to information from the federal government, according to which 70 percent of future hydrogen requirements would have to be imported. If import volume and demand diverge, large storage facilities are needed as a buffer. There are currently no plans to completely expand the cavern system. In the future, however, there is a need for it. Etzel is one of the few cavern locations where an expansion is still possible, said Richter. Up to 22 terawatt hours of hydrogen could be stored in Etzel. The storage potential for all of Germany is limited to 40 terawatt hours, he said. The citizens' initiative (BI) Quality of Life Horsten-Etzel-Marx, which has been following the work on the cavern field for years, is critical of the expansion of the facility. "The hydrogen must not lead to more caverns being mined or oil caverns being converted," said BI Chairman Alexander von Fintel. His fear is that further caverns could cause the ground on the site to sink further - with unforeseeable consequential damage. The BI has no objection to the test storage of hydrogen. "Basically, the energy transition is necessary," said von Fintel. Image: Above-ground facilities of the caverns that are used for storing gas and oil. Photo: Sina Schuldt/dpa Source: Sina Schuldt

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https://fuelcellsworks.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/02/Sectional-view-of-Etzel-cavern-storage-facility.webp[/caption] Conversion of existing caverns and plants for the storage of hydrogen in the Etzel salt dome · Lower Saxony's Ministry for the Environment, Energy, Building and Climate Protection supports a pilot project The Etzel pipeline and network node offers a wide range of cooperation and funding opportunities for the development of an H2 economy in the Friesland/ Ostfriesland/ Wilhelmshaven region in north-west Germany. “Hydrogen will become an integral part of the future energy industry. This will not succeed without memory. With H2CAST Etzel we are promoting a pilot project on an industrial scale. And that is important in order to quickly reach the scale of the hydrogen economy, which we will soon need in order to be able to operate in a climate-neutral manner," says Olaf Lies, Lower Saxony's Energy Minister, describing the motivation for the project funding by Lower Saxony. "What is special is that for the first time in Lower Saxony, caverns that are intended for oil and gas storage are to be repurposed for hydrogen. The intended brine shuttle operation has not yet been implemented. The pilot project is also the starting point for a possible local value chain. We create knowledge that is likely to be in demand elsewhere. With the funding, we are helping to ensure that we will continue to have a secure energy supply in the future, ultimately without oil and natural gas, while maintaining local added value from the Lower Saxony energy hub," explains Lies.

H2CAST Etzel project team

The consortium of competent and experienced partners from business and science is working on the following questions: Are the existing caverns in the Etzel salt dome also suitable for storing hydrogen? And if so, do they have to be converted for this and if so, how? The team from various specialist areas wants to find out together and show how hydrogen storage can work in the caverns of the Etzel salt dome.

The project partners are:

STORAG ETZEL (provider of cavern storage)

STORAG ETZEL builds, maintains and leases underground storage capacity for gas and oil at the Etzel site in East Friesland. Tenants are national and European oil storage organizations and international companies from the energy sector. Among other things, a large part of the German crude oil reserve is stored in Etzel.

EKB STORAGE (operator of natural gas cavern storage facilities)

EKB Storage has been operating a natural gas cavern storage facility in Etzel, East Frisia, with currently nine underground caverns for national and international customers since 2012.

DEEP.KBB (planning, construction and operation of underground storage facilities)

DEEP.KBB is primarily involved in the planning, construction and operation of underground storage facilities in the salt for storing natural gas, mineral oil, gas and oil products and the storage of renewable energies, in particular compressed air and hydrogen. Focus: geology, rock mechanics, drilling and completion technology, thermodynamics, sol technology, leak tests, cavern flooding, gas filling and reservoir engineering.

DLR – Institute for Networked Energy Systems

The Institute for Networked Energy Systems was incorporated into the German Aerospace Center (DLR) in June 2017. The primary research goal of the three scientific departments Urban and Building Technologies, Energy System Technology and Energy System Analysis is the development of technologies and concepts for the design of the energy transition.

Hartmann Valves

Hartmann Valves is a supplier of specialty ball valves, wellheads and related service and testing, including solutions for applications and underground hydrogen storage.

TU Clausthal

The Chair for Geomechanics and Multiphysical Systems at the TU Clausthal deals with the stability and tightness of salt caverns for storing energy resources such as natural gas and crude oil, for compressed air storage and for brine production. To carry out its tasks in research and teaching, the chair has an extensively equipped laboratory (currently 25 rock-mechanical test systems), a powerful computer pool and various numerical program systems.

SOCON

SOCON Sonar Control Cavern Surveying specializes in the geophysical surveying of caverns, boreholes and underground cavities.

Store Hydrogen in Caverns? Pilot Project Starts in East Friesland